In 1837, Georgia lawmakers authorized a “Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum.” Five years later, the facility opened as the Georgia Lunatic Asylum on the outskirts of the cotton-rich town that served as the antebellum state capital.

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Where Iberian Pig takes its inspiration from all of Spain, Cooks & Soldiers focuses on the Basque region, which gained an international profile during the craze over molecular gastronomy and its first exponent, Ferran Adrià of elBulli.

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Southbound magazine, the newest ancillary title from the publishers of Atlanta magazine, showcases the top travel destinations in the Southeast. We visit idyllic small towns and exciting cities in search of outstanding vacation opportunities.Inside Southbound

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Georgia offers diverse places to see and things to do, from the mountains in North Georgia to the coasts of Savannah and The Golden Isles. Take a tour in your own backyard and visit all that our great state has to offer. Begin your tour

Dining in has its advantages: You can wear what you want, eat when you want, and drink as much as you like. To craft the perfect dinner party but skip dirtying the kitchen, look to these seven purveyors for the best meat, cheese, pasta, wine, and dessert.

Tom Catherall shares plans for Smash

Here to Serve Restaurants founder to open his latest on Memorial Day weekend

Tom Catherall, founder of Here To Serve Restaurants (Noche, Prime, Aja, Cantina, Goldfish, Twist, Shout, Coast, and Strip), is turning 64 in May, but he’s not slowing down anytime soon. In fact, he’s celebrating his birthday Memorial Day weekend this year with the opening of another restaurant, Smash. Located in Brookhaven in the space formerly home to Stir Crazy, Smash will be an American chophouse, likely led by former Prime executive chef John McGarry.

“Originally, I thought about doing Tom Tom again, but we started designing it and the space didn’t look like Tom Tom,” Catherall says. “We started doing the menus and I realized I didn’t want to do something from twenty years ago.”

Instead, Catherall came up with the idea for Smash while in London. He had been eating a lot of potatoes there and was particularly fond of a “smash of vegetables and mashed potatoes—Brussels, carrots, and cabbage—fried in a skillet.” He says he was going to call the restaurant Mash because it would be a mishmash of the restaurants he’s created over the years. However, upon his return to the U.S., his staff convinced him the name Smash was catchier.

Nevertheless, Smash will serve the aforementioned potato dish, as well as smashed (muddled) drinks, slushies, and more. The menu will be comprised of salads, sandwiches, steak burgers, wood-fired pizzas, and entrees. The pizzas will be made with double-zero flour—inspiration courtesy of Catherall’s friend, Antico Pizza founder Giovanni Di Palma.

Catherall says he’ll be in the kitchen the first few months the restaurant is open, but he in no way wants to be the face of the restaurant. That’s where McGarry comes in. Catherall says he’s 90 percent sure McGarry will be the one in the kitchen full-time. “He worked at Prime for 10 years,” Catherall says. “I’m almost 64. I have no plans anymore. This may be my last restaurant.”

On the other hand, Catherall continues: “I love Watercolor [Florida]. I really need to do a restaurant down there—every place to eat is horrible.”